He ‘spent very little time in parish work and he has no formal training as a papal nuncio’

Fr Brendan Hoban said he was “not too sure” the nuncio was “the right man to appoint, effectively on his own, a whole phalanx of new bishops, five in the last few months and two others apparently in the pipeline, almost a third of the Irish episcopal bench, as we rather grandly call it”.

The role of papal nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown in the recent appointment of new bishops has been forcefully criticised by founder member of the Association of Catholic Priests Fr Brendan Hoban.

Writing under the heading ‘Is our papal nuncio too much Pope Benedict’s man?’ on the association’s website, Fr Hoban noted that “in recent months, five new bishops have been appointed to dioceses other than their own”.

Single-handedSaying his criticisms were not of the men personally, he said he was “not too sure” the nuncio was “the right man to appoint, effectively on his own, a whole phalanx of new bishops, five in the last few months and two others apparently in the pipeline, almost a third of the Irish episcopal bench, as we rather grandly call it”.

“Archbishop Brown, it seems, spent very little time in parish work and he has no formal training as a papal nuncio, in that he was catapulted out of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith into the diplomatic service by Pope Benedict, as Rome’s answer to the dysfunctional Irish Catholic Church. ”

Fr Hoban said he was “not too sure with these two disabilities plus the inevitable problem of appreciating the nuances of a different culture that such crucial decision-making should be placed effectively in his exclusive hands”.

“Pope Benedict, under whose governance the system of church administration almost collapsed, tended . . . to put his supporters in positions of administrative power because he knew and trusted them, rather than because they had the qualities required to do the job.”

Fr Hoban said he worried whether Archbishop Brown “appreciates the new spring in the Catholic Church that Pope Francis represents. If there’s one thing clear in the focus of the new pope, it’s that there is a wider and deeper perspective on what’s good for the Catholic Church than the narrow wisdom that emanates from Rome.”